This article was first published in the August 2015 issue of WIRED magazine. Be the first to read WIRED's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online
Our healthcare system is not personalised enough, explains neuroscientist Adam Gazzaley, and far too simple. "A single pill is used, as if we have a holy grail, a way of meaningfully changing something as complex as the brain," he says. "And we don't have that." His solution: video games, specifically brain-training activities that adapt to your progress to keep challenging key areas, such as multitasking, attention and memory.
His team in San Francisco has already created Neuroracer, a simple game that has already improved the multitasking abilities of 60- to 80-year-olds, who after completing 12 hours of the game over a month, three hours per week, outperformed the multitasking abilities of 20-year-olds playing the game for the first time. "Video games are an immersive, engaging, enjoyable, interactive way of changing behaviour," says Gazzaley. "We think that they can be a positive source of impact, so they're our main delivery tool." His team is preparing for a clinical trial, testing whether the game could be used as a therapeutic for people with ADHD.
To boost the impact of each game, Gazzaley built Glass Brain, a 3D brain visualisation combining MRI and EEG that monitors in real time how brain areas are communicating with each other. At the moment his games evolve based on MRI and EEG observations of the player's performance, but he hopes to be able to feed in this more comprehensive neural information. "By using neural activity and feedback we can apply pressure and change that system."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
